In this thread, Tom mentions the term musselman as a “corruption of Muslim”. Perhaps. I, however, am familiar with the term as applying to concentration camp victims for whom death by inanition was imminent.
Here is one of many such references (from here);
My question, then, is how and why was the term musselman used to denote such tragic individuals?
Thanks in advance.
Probably a reference to the kohl worn around the eyes in certain Arab cultures. Arab -> Muslim -> Musselman.
Now that’s an interesting explanation. Thanks.
I think I also heard another one (quite apocryphal) along the lines that Islam means 'submission" and if you’ve resigned yourself to death, if you’ve given up, then you’ve ‘submitted’. Can anyone back that up?
In The Nazi Doctors, Robert Jay Lifton quotes Hermann Langbein - who was there - from Menschen in Auschwitz that it was because “when one saw a group of them at a distance, one had the impression of praying Arabs.” Though I don’t quite see this myself.
I’m fairly sure that Primo Levi comments on the term somewhere in Survival in Auschwitz/If This Is A Man, but I don’t have a copy to hand.
Here is an interesting article on the topic. It is more philosophical rumination than actual linguistic etymology, but this interview with Gil Anidjar conducted by Nermeen Shaikh, The Muselmann in Auschwitz, does probe some interesting links.
Musselman is used in Hindi to refer to Muslims. The only mention of its etymology I’ve heard was in a Bollywood movie, Sarfarosh. Don’t remember it now.
Wow. I would never imagined that there was even the possibilty of such a profound and weighty association. Even beyond that, Andijar’s words, to use a cliche, are pregnant with implication. The topic seems ripe indeed.
(As an aside, I’ll note that dialogues such as the one in the link, are the main reason I chose a life in science and not the arts. Do people really talk, or write, like that? At times, I found him almost impenetrable.)
Yes, they do. Once you reach a certain level of discussion and criticism, it becomes natural to speak and write like that and it’s actually difficult to to put it in simpler terms or less involved language. It’s just what you’re accustomed to reading or how you’re accustomed to writing. A lot of what I find challenging about this type of topic is that it deals with things that aren’t corporeal–you can’t pick up the “double-absence” or prove that it exists through experimentation. You have to be willing to trust the speaker/author before you can begin analyzing the argument. Sometimes, though, it all turns into a massive intelligence-wank and you just want to kick them in the ego, where it will hurt.
I know this is pure speculation, but what about the Muslims who crossed desserts in hajj or wartime and came into towns gaunt with malnutrition and water deprivation. Maybe it is a Bedouin reference in morphology and not a political or religous moniker?
Of course, the true cryptic horror of Musselman is likely the Nazi practice of lining up prisoners, making them kneel (as a muslim might during prayer), and shooting them in the head en Masse. Not all were gassed.